If TNG/DS9/VOY were never made, would you have watched TOS?

I'm asking this mainly of fans who are too young to have watched TOS during its initial run.

The Next Generation premiered when I was six and it quickly became my favorite show. I stuck with the 80s/90s series through to the end of Voyager, and watched Enterprise sporadically. It was not until I was an adult that I watched the Original Series all the way through, and it took me a long time to learn to appreciate it. (Blasphemy, I know.)

If it were not for TNG, I doubt I ever would have given any time to TOS at all, much less grew to love it. Anybody else feel the same way?

Nope, not at all. I'm too young to have seen TOS first run, but I watched it all the time growing up in the 70s and early 80s and loved it. I eagerly watched TNG/DS9/VOY/ENT and to varying degrees enjoyed them all, but TOS is still "Star Trek" to me. So I don't really understand this idea that one would have to be introduced to TOS via the sequel series to appreciate it. Honestly, I still rewatch TOS but have little to no desire to revisit the newer shows (and I liked them, I just don't feel the need to revisit them.) The only modern Trek that I have enjoyed as much as TOS is the 2009 movie.

TNG was my first taste of Star Trek. I was little when it was on, and it became, and still is my favorite TV show. To be honest, I didn't watch much of the original Trek until I was college age, except for the movies which I liked. I was put off by the low budget, and it without TNG, I would not have forced my self to look passed it, and now I love TOS . Funny now that TNG looks quite old and sometimes a bit cheesy now .

I grew up on TNG and loved it. I would have never watched TOS if it weren't for TNG and would have never given it a chance if I watched some. I love TOS but TNG had to bring me into the Trek universe for me to appreciate all that came before.

Yup. As far as I know we always had the TOS VHS tapes (the ones that came in the grey/silver old-style cases, with two or three episodes each - and I'm led to believe they were horribly expensive!) and the movies. TNG started not long after I was born, but from the time I could operate a VCR (basically as soon as I could reach it) I was watching TOS.

Funny story - we never had/lost the tape with "Turnabout Intruder" on it, and while I have watched every TOS tape we had multiple times - I spent many a summer morning waking up before everyone else so I could have the TV first and watch Trek - I have never seen that episode (or whatever other episode was with it on the tape).

I was only four months old when TNG premiered; six years old when DS9 premiered; and eight years old when VOY premiered. I have a vague memory of once dressing up as a Ferengi for Halloween, though no idea what age I would have been at the time. I can remember waking up early to watch DS9 and VGR; the local syndication airings were on Sunday mornings for a while.

In any event, I watched the TOS movies more than I watched any other Trek while I was young, even including DS9 and VGR (I wasn't very good at waking up on time for the shows, and I'm pretty sure the local channel airing them bounced the showtimes around). Later, the TOS movies led me back to watching TOS in syndication, and eventually that led me to watching TNG. I never saw most of DS9 until a couple years ago when I bought the DVDs, though I had seen most of TOS and TNG by that point.

Short answer: I think so, since it was mainly the TOS movies that led me backwards to TOS, rather than the various spin-off series. However, since I was watching those movies and some TNG, DS9, and VGR, it's difficult for me to separate it all with certainty.

It's possible I wouldn't have. I was introduced to Trek through TNG, so who knows? I suppose, even without spin-off series Star Trek would eventually get a movie reboot, and maybe that would motivate me to check out TOS.

Of course, how divergent things are we? Even without spin-offs are TOS re-runs still being shown daily around the world? If so, then there's a good chance as a sci-fi nerd I'd still check out the famous TV show of the 60s.

I'd have probably watched it out of curiosity for classic sci-fi and to see where the movies came from. BBC 2 went through a period in the mid 90s of showing classic sci-fi at 6pm week nights. As well as TOS Jon Pertwee's Doctor Who got an outing and so did UFO I think. Didn't watch that one though.